Director Thor Freudenthal's big-screen adaptation of the popular children's book series by author Jeff Kinney follows the misadventures of a socially challenged, wisecracking sixth grader named Greg Heffley. Composer Theodore Shapiro (Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy, Starsky & Hutch) embraces the awkwardness of the middle-school years with frivolity and warmth, allowing his simple but effective orchestrations the room they need to be both nostalgic and uncertain. ~ James Christopher Monger